Bye-bye fossil fuels in the Aloha State

Hawaii Wants To Be The First State To Run Completely On Renewable Energy

James Cave, Huffington Post

With strong trade winds, volcanic heat and abundant solar and hydropower, the Hawaiian islands have a plethora of natural resources.

Yet the state is America’s largest consumer of fossil fuels per capita, according to Hawaii’s Environmental Council for the Office of Environmental Quality Control.

A bill currently going through the state's legislature aims to change that by setting the ambitious goal of using renewable energy exclusively by 2050.

If it passes, Hawaii could be the first state in the country to meet all of its electricity demand with renewable resources.

Mark Glick, the Hawaii State Energy Office energy administrator, said that economically speaking, the bill makes sense. Energy available from Hawaii’s numerous renewable sources “competes favorably today with the cost of oil,” he said, making a 100 percent goal “both lofty and achievable.”

“We increased our renewable portfolio standards in 2009 to current levels,” Glick said. The state set a goal of getting 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2015.

Today, Hawaii is close to 23 percent, he noted, “and 2015 isn’t finished yet.”

(More here.)